Homemade vegetable soup

In winter, I could easily live on soup alone. No, scratch that, oat porridge in the morning and soup in the evening. Give me that and I'd be your friend forever. I am a simple soul.

Here is my recipe for vegetable soup and herb dumplings. There is a no meat version of the soup and a meat version.

Traditionally, winter vegetable soups are made with root vegetables. They are in season in winter, and are cheap then, so it's the ideal way to take advantage of that and make a big pot that will keep you going for a couple of days.

These quantities will make a big stockpot full of soup which lasts for about five meals in our home. It is a very good soup for children who don't eat a lot of vegetables. Instead of chopping the vegies, you can shred them and they can't be recognised. The kids will be drawn in by the dumplings and have to eat the soup to get to them.

To make this stock, chop all your ingredients, except the herbs, and fry them gently in a sauce pan with a little oil. Cook them until they're caramelised - they will be brown, not burnt. You'll need to stir the vegetables so they don't brown too much. When they're nicely brown, add water, salt and pepper to taste and bring to the boil. Add the herbs and simmer for about 30 minutes.

Use a strainer and strain the stock, removing the vegetables and herbs. What you have now is a vegetarian stock.

STOCK FOR MEAT VERSIONBuy about 1 kg (2 pounds) beef soup bones. You want the bones with a lot of bone marrow in them for better flavour and more nutrition. The butcher will often cut open these bones so you can see the inside of the bones.

Put the bones in the oven with a little oil drizzled over them and roast for about 45 minutes, or until the bones are brown.

Then put the bones in a stockpot, cover with water and 1 chopped onion and some fresh thyme and parsley. Bring to the boil and simmer for at least an hour. Using a strainer, remove the meat bones and vegetables from the stock.

a handful of chopped herbs - either chives, green onion tops, thyme or parsley are great

To make the dumplings, add the flour, salt and pepper and butter to a bowl and, using your fingers, rub the butter into the flour. You keep doing this until the mix looks like fine bread crumbs - see photo below.

Then add the herbs and enough water to make a firm dough. The dough should be like a moist bread dough. When it's formed into a nice dough, take walnut size portions and roll them into balls. Plop the dumplings into the soup. They will float on the top of the soup and cook for about 15 minutes. Put the top on your stockpot so the dumpling tops cook in steam. When they're firm, they're ready.

Just to recap, this soup might take most of the day to cook, but you are only spending about 30 minutes actually standing at the stove or chopping ingredients. The rest of the time is the soup cooking slowly.

So make your stock first, this could be done the day before.

When the stock is ready, chop your fresh vegetables and cook the soup.

Make the dumplings and add them for the last 15 minutes of the soup cooking time.

There is enough protein in this soup but if your family must have meat, make little meatballs and add to the soup. You can make little meatballs with 500 grams (1 pound) topside mince (ground beef), mix one egg with a tablespoon or milk and soak two slices of stale bread in it. Break it up and add to the meat, salt and pepper and form into balls. Fry these until cooked and add to the soup just before serving.

25 comments

This looks absolutely yummy even though I still eating porridge at the moment. For those of us who aren't the best cooks - how much water do you use for the stock ?Thank you once again for entertaining and enlightening posts.Patricia in North Qld

Hello girls! Patricia, I've never measured the water but I guess it would be around four litres (quarts). You'll need to cover the vegetables in the pot with water and have enough to make the soup the consistency you enjoy.

anon, leave ABBA where they are and use a rutabaga. LOL! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutabaga

Thanks for sharing the dumpling recipe. I've only ever made them with either potato or semolina and eggs. They look so inviting I'm tempted to make them tonight, no, maybe lunchtime! I just love wintertime so I can make soups, and I always eat too much of them. There's nothing like a home made soup on a cold day.

Your recipe is just what I needed today- I had planned to make a pea and ham soup, but couldn't find a ham trotter at the supermarket- I was going to find a good veggie substitute. Well, I found it in your post! Thanks!

That soup looks delicious. I am in California and don't want to make soup on most days, but we're in the northern part so I still have some nice cool days that a soup would be fantastic for dinner. Have you tried freezing it? I am wondering if I could make up a big batch and freeze it for dinners at othertimes. (without the dumplings of course) Thank you for the recipe.

Oh yes...on a side note. I read the bra making link on your side bar a while back. I ordered the patterns for a bra and for the panties. I also bought some great patterns for clothing at a big fabric store here, on Monday. (the patterns were 2 for $3.00! I saved $58.00!) You have given me ideas to start living simply and I am starting there! I want to thank you for a wonderful blog giving me the help I needed to do what I should have been doing years ago!

Reminds me of my mother's homemade vegetable soup. She didn't make dumplings but she used pearl barley, which I loved. It's summer here in the northern hemisphere, but I'll bookmark this for when winter comes. Yum!

I do have a question. I want to make my own cleaners for the bathrooms and such and I thought I saw that some had ammonia in some of the recipes. I have used bleach in my showers before so will it be safe to start using a cleaner with ammonia in it on my showers.

I found you by way of Tipnut.com but I noticed that there is no longer a way to get from there to your site. I was wondering if something happened. That is how I found you and it has been very helpful in my journey to live a simple life and so I don't want others to miss out on all of the great information I have been able to drink in.

I'm with you Rhonda,I too could easily live off oats for breakfast,lots of lovely soups(epecially with dumplings)and plenty of salads from the garden in summer!So cheap too!!!Love from Kathy and the girls

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